Kashgar Project

2nd June 2010

This project brings together teams from the Monash Asia Institute, Urumqi Normal University in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China in an international research collaboration to document, measure, and define the most significant cultural monuments and spaces of Kashgar. For the purposes of this project, Kasghar is defined as the modern and ancient city and the eleven countries that currently form the greater region of “Kasghar”. Monash Asia Institute and Urumqi Normal University teams are working with the support of the Department of Tourism, Government of Xinjiang and the Department of Foreign Relations, Kashgar.

Angelo Andrea Di Castro (2009 in press) ‘The Mori Tim Stupa Complex in the Kashgar Oasis’, East and West vol 58 (1-4) 2008, pp. 257-282. This paper is the first published description of the Mori Tim Stupa since Sir Aurel Stein’s account in 1907.

Book Launches

Kashgar: Oasis City on China’s Old Silk Road was launched in early 2009 at:

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, March
M-on-the-Bund, Shanghai, PRC, April
Hok Tai Hotel, Urumuqi, PRC, April

The audiences at these launches included members of the artistic and academic communities, government and corporate representatives and the general public.

The book launch in Urumuqi was organised by the Xinjiang Normal University and was well attended by the partners in the project namely the Xinjiang Government Tourist Department and the Department of Foreign Relations.

New Developments

Animations
Tom Chandler has been supervising Honours students in the IT faculty at Monash University in their production of historically accurate and meticulously designed animations of various aspects of the cultural monuments and sacred sites of the Kashgar prefecture.

These animations enable the viewer to obtain a better idea of what these monuments and sites looked like during their heyday – in the case of the Buddhist stupas, c. 400AD. This important act of reconstruction by Tom Chandler will assist the general public in appreciating the unique historical importance of Kashgar, and hence promote the conservation of these monuments.